A couple of things. First, Fred Edelstein was notorious for making up crap. He had it as a done deal that Marino was going to be traded before JJ's first game, and kept brining that crap up as a new "scoop" throughout that first season.
However, despite his notorious lack of credibility, I'm beginning to think Saban REALLY does want RW back, and not just for trade purposes. After drafting Brown, Saban listed his ability to, and I'm paraphrasing here, "play with another significant player", as being one of Ronnie Brown's appealing qualities.
I don't like it, it makes me sick, but I'm curious if there may not be something to this. The part about counting his 1 year "retirement" as his "suspension", with no 4 game suspension for the 05 season sounds COMPLETELY consistent with the way the NFL handles things. I've said it before, multiple times even, if RW wanted back, the NFL would find a way for him to play. He was a superstar, and the NFL treats those guys VERY, VERY differently than the Jeff Zgonias of the world.
Time will tell.